Its been confirmed guys now we just got to wait for it to be released state side  
 
http://www.rpgamer.com/games/persona/persona4/persona4.html

It seems they employ almost the same engine of P3...
 
Some info may be included in the MegatenWiki soon:
 
Starting Personae of 3 mains:
Main - Isanagi (a bad duplication to Thanatos from P3 imo)
Yousuke Hanamura - Jiraiya (the name should be very familiar to Naruto fans)
Chie Satonaka - Tomoe (Tomoe Gozen, to be precise. The historic female warrior in Japan)  
 
All of them are Japanese rather than the traditional Greek...
 
edit: though unsure, the miko-type long-hair girl, Yukiko's Persona could be Konohanasakuya-hime, judging by her battle cry at 13:19 in the PV.

Some info/screens at MagicBox.
http://www.the-magicbox.com/0803/game080318e.shtml
 
I'm excited!

Quote from peep on 03/19/08 at 04:44:42:

 
Oh boy
 
Quote:

 
Like Persona one?
 
EDIT:Quote from 0kami7777 on 03/18/08 at 17:22:59:

 
Lolwut

Hm, the main character is really bland this time around.  Like... really bland.  At least the MP of P3 had blue hair/something bizarre to distinguish him from NPC designs, but honestly, whats the deal with this new kid?  
 
I also am not so enthusiastic about that bizarre bear-rodent robot thing that has its head ripped off in the trailer video.  In some of the screenshots, his face is along the side with other battling party members... which is irritating.  In others, he looks to be functioning as Fuuka did in P3.
 
Atlus has stated that it wants this game to be, "an RPG and a suspense drama at the same time," but I feel like adding bizarre, kitschy elements like this panda egg creature is just bad decision making by the designers.  They seem to have totally stopped engaging with Jungian philosophy at an intelligent level, and I'm a bit disappointed.  
 
Also, I preferred when the Velvet room had more continuity between games.  Elizabeth was a departure from the previous games, but that's probably because the old inhabitants of the Velvet Room, other than Igor, were no longer needed as their respective game elements had been removed.  Why is Elizabeth now replaced with this new tramp?  Igor certainly has made himself into quite the "daddy."
 
Has anyone stumbled upon a translation of the trailer into English?  That would be really useful to see what's up with Persona 4 at this point.
 

No, not really...  but compared to a main protagonist that's more bland than astronaut food, it's an improvement.

Well, you can't blame them for repeating what became a marketing success.  Although it has significantly changed the Persona series for those of us who played it pre-P3, the upside is that now there's a greater chance that all things Megaten will have a better chance at localization.  I doubt the attitude of P3 will seep into other branches of the Megaten franchise either, because generally developers choose to create subseries so they can experiment with different "moods" and ideas.  Personally, I think that it's unfortunate Atlus has decided to use the Persona franchise as the one that capitalizes on every teen gamer boy's unrequited wishes--to possess (super natural) power when they have none to speak of.  Persona 3 was successful for the same reason anything that puts the average high school kid on a world-saving quest is.  I suppose you could argue Nocturne functioned on a similar level, but not really in the same "super hero" vein that Persona does.  Junpei, case in point, is an effective character for a reason.  He literally represents the market Atlus targeted for the revamped Persona series.
 
I think I will probably still enjoy Persona 4.  I think I will find it to be empty like I found Persona 3 to be, but that all in all, it will be like "popcorn for my brain."  Atlus probably has been looking for a way to create an RPG series that can be pumped out to the same effect of the Tales of... series.  (Did anyone else notice that the same Nocturne polygons are being used in this game AGAIN?!  I believe it was an Oni that I saw in a screen shot or perhaps the trailer) I think that if that is their goal, they'll probably enjoy a lot of immediate success with Persona, but all the while risking alienating their previous fan base.

Yeah, but its those superfluous players that count.  It's the people that say stupid shit on GameFAQs, like "Is this game as good as FFXII?" etc that represent the majority of the market.  I think Atlus realizes that SMT was for a niche market, and it made a self-realized move to alter Persona 3 to, in my opinion, reach a broader audience.  They achieved this goal.  If you remember when P3 was announced, Atlus said the game would be making significant departures from its predecessors.  They had given it enough time between P2 to make that change, and they chose Persona as the subseries to alter because it would be a bad decision to completely alienate the die hard faithfuls and destroy the heart of the megaten franchise by making it too fluffy.
 
So when you say SMT is the closest thing Atlus has to a cash cow, you are precisely right, and Atlus is capitalizing on this.  They really can't change the heart of the series without losing all credibility, but they have sacrificed Persona to create a cash cow.  It would not surprise me if we see a lot of Persona games and merchandise.  There's a formula Atlus has been adhering to with all of its SMT games of this generation, and the Persona formula has proven to be the biggest crowd pleaser.  Why wouldn't they punch out more games like this, and why wouldn't Atlus USA take this as a reason to /for sure/ localize each SMT game?  I think it's ironic people were half-convinced Atlus would not localize P3 due to the evokers, and that was going on a precedent of innocent sin never reaching our shores because it had homo activity and nazis.  Now the precedent has been firmly re-established, THROUGH PERSONA, that SMT as a whole and Persona specifically, will sell well in the United States.  
 
I think if the majority of Megaten games were as dark as say Nocturne and DDS, or if they all had content like Innocent Sin, we wouldn't see every single one over here.  Atlus really hasn't missed a beat since it experienced success with Nocturne and DDS, which could very well have been risks, since the majority of the market stateside, honestly, was not at all familiar with the franchise.  If Persona 3 hadn't done as well as it has done, if it hadn't for instance became a giant hit on GameFAQs, which in my opinion is a good litmus test for a game's success, do you think we'd be seeing FES?  
 
I mean, in the end, I think there are a lot of things going on here.  Perhaps an overall shift in the gaming industry as a whole.  I feel like a lot of people are dissatisfied with Persona 3 because of its general easiness to play through and vapid plot, yet out of all the games that have been released recently I can't think of any turn based RPGs that have posed any difficulty to me at all.  Long gone are the days of "old school" FF and Lunar EB.  I think people would be shocked to see a story boss as difficult as Borgan was in Lunar EB actually...
 
Nocturne (and DDS to a lesser extent) kind of had that old school brutality, but I think ever since gaming has become something that's more than just common but almost universal in households, developers have made games more universally controlled experiences.  There is little room for the "elite" and the "old guard" in gaming when there's a lot of cash to be made and a possibility to become a big player in a fast developing industry.  Why make games where only grinders and frenzied Koreans can be winners, when you, your six year old sister, and 50 year old impaired uncle can all be button mashing champions?  Equally, why make games that actually have deep plots and intriguing characters, when posing the facade of that sells equally as well, if not better, because most people are going to bite it, and think it's great.
 
I am /not/ saying I approve of this, but I am saying it's logical.  This fringes on the argument as to whether games are "art" or if they are just "designed commodities" for the household.  Atlus is, in my opinion, going to still deliver us artful games.   We're going to see stories like DDS again, and games that kick our ass as hard as Nocturne (and hopefully harder), but as a company, I think their priority is to develop a way to stand out in an industry where every year there's a chance to be bought out and go belly up.  Instead of seeing what happened with say, GameArts, which is now subservient to SquareEnix and has not produced a decent game in a decade, I want Atlus to have the marketing prowess and stability to give us the rare gem or two.

I wasn't really a big fan of Persona 3... I at least expected original dungeons at full moons but didn't even get that... infact battling in general was only about 5% of the game. The game offered "fake" freedom in that you really had to do things in a certain order even if it made it look like you had choice. @@ But... at least the AI was better than that in DS: Raidou Kuzunoha... I'm kinda' sad that so far Persona 4 looks like a clone.
 
You know, I'd much MUCH rather see Shin Megami Tensei IV than Persona 4. What ever happened with the Persona remake on the PSP anyway?

Quote from Alizarin on 04/15/08 at 21:37:04:

 
Lucifer's Call was good, I don't think you can realy base the next part of the main series to the outcome of its spin-offs... With that said it seemed like SMTIII was watered down compared to SMT and SMTII. Needs more Nuclear wars, corrupted Americans and devoured mothers. =P Plus, at the end of the day, if you don't like a game you just don't play it.. it's not like it would effect the games before it.
 
I woulda' liked the first Persona games to hit the PSP and make it over here. Cos, you know, they were actually "good"...

Meaning it needs to be darker and less PC. -.- Closer to the books and the original games. I'd hardly say Atlus is West-phobic, they just choose to release a style of game that other much larger companies don't have the balls to in case they don't sell well enough... if they were phobic, they wouldn't release them at all. xD It's hardly an insult to *gasp* have a bad guy from another country, is it? If anything it was rather Japanophobic or Teutophobic to turn away Persona 2 because it had Hitler in it.. BUT times have changed and it's thanks largly to Atlus, Koei and other smaller companies we can even get games with such a strong Japanese feel such as SMT or Disgaea.
 
But this is beside the point! The topic is meant to be about Persona 4.

My my, you hardly sound like you even LIKE Megaten. Hmm.. Oh well, you seem to be getting annoyed -for some reason- over the whole thing, and I'm reeeaally not here to argue or make enemies over something as trivial as a video game. =P I'm here to chat with the fans, no more no less, so just forget it, k? We'll agree that I want a fourth and you don't. Isn't freedom of thought a wonderful thing?

Quote from MutheSquirrel on 04/16/08 at 18:31:51:

 
Nah he's alot like me with Phoenix Wright.
 
Love the series, hate Edgeworth. And hate 90% of the fans 'cause they're mostly females masturbating over Phoenix and Edgeworth having KAWAII BUTTSECHS. So yeah, it's why I stay away from all PW messageboards. Nothing wrong with pointing out flaws in a series you like, at least that means you're not a blind drooling fanboy.
 
Quote:

 
Is this the...wait no what is Mara
 
Anyways I quite like Persona 2 for instance, at least the main game. Not alot of excess, which is great. "Nuclear wars, corrupted Americans and devoured mothers" is certainly excess and seems parody more than a videogame. I watch DBZ if I want shit like that

Actually I mostly like the series for the demons/deities/beasts. I likes my mythology~ Plus I can't really think of any females in the whole series worth drooling over... hmm... my friend Cat likes the Incubus! I don't think that's for his looks though.
 
I saw Mara on Youtube in Devil Summoner. Sure are a lot of penis demons in the series... Mishaguji is a better penis though. Mostly for the way he does his "emission" attack. Heheheh

Quote from MutheSquirrel on 04/16/08 at 11:45:01:

 
You mean you want the Megaten games to be poorly written, gory for the sake of being gory, crap? Because that's what the books are.  Well, ok, I'm not that far on the second one yet, but if the first one is of any indication...
 
Quote from OneWingedSin on 03/27/08 at 03:47:30:

 
No, they're not gone, we're just getting more crap along with the gold. Now, you actually have to be careful with what you chose. Add some elitism by the people that have been around for a longer time, and some... Lack of maturity, by those that didn't join until late, and you have the current generation of gaming.

Quote from Kanzato on 04/30/08 at 10:27:16:

 
I'm more surprised by how people can complain on how much a game sucks/will suck, and get it anyway.

So um.....about the actual game at  hand. Do we know any new details about it? What's everyone's feelings about the trailer?

Well it does feature a unique premise. Looking at the trailer, the corpse's position is reminiscent of the the position of the Hanging Man in any interpretation of the Arcanum. Maybe that means the murders are connected to the Major Arcana? Also, while the dungeons are unique, I'ved read on a translator's blog that "Tartarus" is replaced by a tv studio. So while in a sense they're supposed to be unique, I can't help but feel like it's just the same concept. (Which I loved anyway).
 
Also: Yay for Jiraiya!   Mickey Mouse persona+character reminiscent of Junpei = win.  
 
Edit- 5/2/08
 
Kuma's (the bear thing) persona was added to the website.

I think that the story of P3 is very good. It's well written, has trouble with pacing though but that was unavoidable due to the day-after-day gameplay. I also liked the characters more that in any other RPG because they were not anime cliches and had good dialogue that sounded like something actual teenagers would say.  
 
Overall P3 is a very unique game. I don't understand why many people hate the date-sim elements as they very softcore and simple.
 
I am looking forward to P4. Also does anyone know it's relation to P3? If there's any that is?

Quote from agent-fisher on 05/06/08 at 15:41:58:

 
 
Lol wut

Quote from Alizarin on 05/09/08 at 13:06:11:

 
 
 
Less cliched that any other JRPG. (Save for Nocturne - but there's not really that much character-wise going on in there)
Quote:

 
I think that's kinda the point.  
 
Although I agree about the watering down of the demon interaction (sounds very cool even though I haven't played P2)

It's a Japanese desire, what do you expect? They want their women to be that way.
 
There's even a term for it... Yamoto something... sheninzaiu? Something.

Quote from MutheSquirrel on 05/09/08 at 14:35:28:

 
 
I agree that a little more freedom would've been nice,but maxing all the social links in one playthrough is a purely replay kinda challenge. My first time through, I only maxed like 8. The game never expects you to beat them all. That's like the equivalent of trying to get every pokemon in one game.  As far as the demon contacts, it's a nice feature, but by making it a bit of an exclusive to the main SMT titles, it also in turn makes the Persona series a little different.  
 
Also: Yukiko has a new video under her section, and I believe the keyword section has been updated today as well. Yukiko's update is interesting because she seems to be acting as a host to the Midnight Television we've heard so much about. On top of that, she runs into area where Shadows are likely to appear. Which makes me wonder...
 
Do the victims realize that they're in danger?

Quote:

 
Well, SMT games are like that. Especially in the BOSS-department. Just remember the bosses of Nocturne and DDS.  

What? Demifiend is worse than Satan. Satan doesn't autokill you based on pure luck.

They were both ridiculous. What was the reward for Demi-fiend anyway? I can't really recall it. Also, to keep this thread on topic, if one goes to youtube, they'll find a slurry of new videos related to Persona 4 showing more of the characters.
 
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ko3EC5RvMIw
 
I don't know why, but everyone seems to think that one of the characters looks like Raidou. However, I think his appearance is only mildly similar. His hat looks more like a tradesman cap, not a police cap. Also, I like the conceptual design of the trailer. It reminds me of Persona 3's trailer.

Wait, did anyone notice that one guy looks like Raidou Kuzunoha? Well the hat looks familiar. And I couldn't help but notice the girl with the microphone. A famous Idol on the team!? I don't care what anyone says, I'm excited!

http://www.the-magicbox.com/0805/game080512b.shtml
 
New character, Kanji. Reminds me of Sid Davis. Silver hair, glasses, scar on face instead of star...

I don't think the red-head is an actual idol. I've always stuck with the believe that the characters are trapped in some wierdo trance, which is why Yukiko runs right into a shadow infested area in her second trailer on the official website. Also, I'm loving Kanji because he's like Shinjiro, who should've been more prominent in Persona 3.
 
Also, if anyone happens to know a link to the song, that'd be, you know, AWESOME. It's stuck in my head.

If they'd given him much more development then he could've been more. You'd think FES would've expanded on his back story with Akihiko more.

More stuff from the Atlus Express (taken from gamefaqs)
 
It seems that:
 
SEES members and Trinity Soul characters don't appear but we can hear their rumor in this game.
 
Some female Social Links diverge lovers or best friends.
 
Improving AI's algorithm and can also control them ourselves.
 
Multiple endings but need not restart from the beginning.
 
http://www.atlusnet.jp/express/0805/p4_01.html
 
Oh, and in other news, some other information seems to hint that Kanji is actually gay.

Hail to that bro! I wanna see a gay char. bash some heads, not fight with flowers

Having researched this rumor more, I am going to actually be seriously disappointed if his shadow form is not an indication of shame over his sexuality, etc.  It would be a refreshing, /realistic/, representation of a (closeted) homosexual.  If this game is aiming to be like a television serial, then it would make sense to capitalize on the homosexual "episode" / craze that is in an increasing number of shows.  
 
On a side note, thank god they are doing something intelligent with the shadows.  This is how the shadow should be represented.  As the dark interior to a person's soul in contrast to the shielding exterior--the persona.  They can keep all the high school bullshit they want as long as this simply dichotomy keeps its integrity.  Persona 2 played with it; Persona 3 incorporated it only in name, adding to its vapid and indolent method of story-telling.

Considering how realistically P3 portrayed suicide, I wouldn't get my hopes up if I were you.

Quote from Apollo62 on 05/21/08 at 16:40:28:

 
Isn't it from the interview that RMarques posted? That's all that we have as "proof" short of the game's actual japanese release. I agree the gay closeted angle could really work well with the themes we see building in the game. I just hope it isn't the enitre focus of his story if that's true. I'd hate for him to become one-dimensional.  
 
Yay for controlling characters in the party! I wonder though, will they keep the One-More system? If they did, it'd basically make the game waaaay too easy.
 
 
Also, this is from the Gamespot forums. The apparent translation of the latest Famitsu scans.
 
- There's a rumor that states when you look into a TV at midnight, you see what your real desires are and your inner personality. Basically, what you secretly want to be like.
 
- Dungeons seem to be based around each character's TV channel (ie: inner desire), with the boss shadow being the physical representation of the character's "inner persona". Examples:
 
-The Hotel Heiress' channel depicted her in a princess dress, acting cutesy and a little seductive with lots of outward emotion. This clashes with her family raising her to be a proper woman to take over the business when she grows up.
 
-Kanji's "shadow boss" shows him nude, in roses, and holding two of the the male gender symbols in both hands. This obviously clashes with his tough-guy looking attitude, and also hints that Kanji is actually gay.
 
- This time around, everyone close to you is connected to a commu. Including the guys in your group. Also new, is choosing whether you want to be best friends with someone or to be intimate (as opposed to Persona 3's "having 5 girlfriends at once". My friend translating said he wasn't sure if that meant that you could date the boys in your group as well, but it very well may be possible.
 
- Party members can be set to be MANUALLY CONTROLLED.
 
- The pop star is rumored to be "the navigator" of the group, because she is the only one that hasn't been seen in battle clips.
 
 
If the first part is true, then my belief that red-head isn't an idol is true. Wonder what MC's "inner desire" would be? I hope that we as players can influence that.

Yeah, either this game is absolutely moronic in thinking that there's anything else to read into Kanji's shadow form, or he's completely a closet case.  
 
As for the idol, I don't think we should assume she is the navigator.  That bear thing, kuma, has been seen appearing where Fuuka did during battles as well as participating in battle.  I think that there's no reason that the game will make one character completely useless and non-combative.  I just think we haven't gotten to see the "idol" character because she's probably like ken and koromaru and kind of secondary to the main cast.  I mean we didn't really know much if anything about ken for a really long time.  We were all like wtf is that little boy doing in all these trailers?

I don't know, I still side with the idea of Kuma being the Mitsuru to Idol's Fuuka. Maybe he acts as the navigator in the beginning, but like Mitsuru attempts to be more pro-active in fighting the shadows? We've seen everyone, but her in combat now, so either she is really secondary to the story, or she's this game's navigator. I hope so, because I don't want a Fuuka 2.0, who's shy and lacks confidence, etc.

"...well, making MC date boys in your party would be totally, totally refreshing..."
 
This stuff kinda gives me the creeps. I mean, Jun turned out to be gay, but when i was playing P2EP i never had a thought about him being one. And focusing some parts of the storyline on this homostuff is sort of promoting homosexualism imho. down with you, yaoi lover girls )
 
i just hope it`s a good old fake

i wanted to wright something about "have you noticed gays arranging parades and all this stuff to show the world how they are proud of their choice blah blah blah and straight guys not doing anything like that" but i don`t like faggots at all and i`m tired of speaking about gays already.
 
*electricity cuts off*
 
so
homosexuality is gay. (c)

Quote from Sir_Asura on 05/23/08 at 12:50:24:

 
It could be called promotion if doing so leads to a unqiue and powerful item though, just to play devil's advocate.

Um...isn't what he said pretty much flatout grounds for being banned? I mean, it's one thing to dislike a people, but to use hate speech? Isn't that like, insta-flag? I oculd be wrong though so don't hate; I just though that was the "TOS" here.

yeah,just don`t let the thread turn, don`t let the thread turn...
 
the final question which you don`t need to reply THERE:
let`s say the country you live in is really tolerant.
now look at the major games released by your country`s developers this month and count the gay chars and gay storyline plots in these games.  
 
and now...
 
return to Kuma.
is it really a bear? cuz the thing just doesn`t look like one )))

Well, Persona 3 had Koromaru, so...
 
 
Oh, and Persona 4 would hardly be the first game with gay characters in them. Sims 1, Sims 2, and Canis Canem Edit (Bully for you americans) already beat it to the punch.

Kuma is a character from a children's TV show in the world of P4.

Quote from Choooo on 05/24/08 at 12:33:52:

 
I've seen this mentioned on other boards, but I don't know where people are getting this from. Is this on the official site, or mentioned in an interview?
 
Also: There's a new video on the website. So...you know...if someone speaks Japanese they can enjoy it.

Quote from Sir_Asura on 05/24/08 at 19:33:13:

 
I don't know why you need to be kidding.

Ironically, that's the only reason I dislike gays in videogames (or the idea of marketing them to females) the tons of retarded fanart I'd have to wade through, with the usual DON'T LIKE IT DON'T LOOK (it's hard not to look when it's all over the fucking place you know, especially on the series messageboards you want to frequent)
 
My brother's gay, my brother's awesome, I'm glad he wasn't born a girl otherwise he'd be reading Gravitation and going on about how difficult it is for males to date (well probably anyway, he's at that age)
 
So what I'm getting at is that the world isn't really ready for having gay characters in anything, usually gays are parodied in games as being giant flamboyant flamers or meek waifish effeminate things you can't tell are men. Once they're accepted as normal people we can have them in games. Til then they're going to be pretty annoying and ridiculous (of course, with few exceptions)

aw, nobody wants war, and i just wished to question something mistakingly called freedom in the modern world...  
 
alright, from what i`ve read i remember promises to get about 200 Personas in P4. The number is pretty huge for one MC to use, so I think changing support chars Personas would be featured.
 
and for OST i presume it really would be easy listening cr... sh... songs and tracks.
 
shame on you, developers, for not making it exclusively grindcore through previous games... just joking!

Внимание пользователям форума Megaten Haven! У вас зафиксирован вопиющий случай проявления Долбосраки в терминальной стадии! Так же на вас было написано заявление в Ональную полицию Российской Федерации. Поскольку наша организация не имеет международных полномочий, мы вынужденны всю собранную информацию отправить в местный аналогичный орган, который обязан будет наказать вас по всей строгости!
 

Да я принимаю это очень серьезно. Однако, Megaten Haven основано из Россия, поэтому вам не нужны международные авторитеты. Мы расположены СПРАВЕДЛИВО ЗА ВАМИ. Не посмотрите за вами, сыграйте его холодное.

0 - 0
 
Asura, I'm so on your level about the gay stereotype and it's them shooting themselves in the foot. Let's not get into my own clusterfucked mind, but being bisexual means sort of keeping up appearences between both worlds that you don't fully agree with. And it's hard to support the cuase of gay and lesbian brethren when they just keep on insisting on exclusivity and how weird and different they are when really they should try and show how they are just like anybody else. It's sort of the reverse of black civil rights. Gay power has come before gay acceptance and it's only dividing people.  
 
It's also interesting to know that out of the 5 gay freinds that immediately come to mind, none are stereotypical at all. None act effeminate or are interested in clothes or rainbows or anything like that.
 
And I also go to an art school, Asura XD I totally get where you're coming from. Is your school just visual arts or the spectrum like mine is (I'm in creative writing).
 
But ON topic:
 
Persona 4. I'm so glad they nixed (lol pun) Tarturus/stagnant dungeon in favor for diverse TV dungeons. I'm excited.

WHY did they make the One More system over Press Turns, eesh..

Quote from Sir_Asura on 05/25/08 at 02:36:21:

 
>_< Now I'm tempted. Even after being burned out of debating on the internet in general. Curse ye!
 
*ahem*
 
Personally, between the One More system and DDS's, I'm not really fussed over either of them. They're both still the same old turn based JRPG battles with a little twist, so meh. What I'm really hoping is that Atlus actually prints this more than once. >_> Finding the games was hard enough while they were in print, let alone now that they're out of print.

Quote from Sir_Asura on 05/25/08 at 02:36:21:

I speak Japanese but I'm a bit forgetful, meaning I wouldn't remember to look for updates. If enough people wanted the updates translated, I could give it a try for a while.
 
Although this blog does a pretty good job.

Huh... Extra stuff to do on the dungeons after they're complete.... Return of the golden enemies perhaps?

Definite good looks on the link man. That's like CliffsNotes or something for Persona 4 info.  
 
As for the the extra stuff in old dungeons, maybe that's where you can find the alternate outfits, or joke weapons. Possibly through golden enemies like RMarques suggested. Then again, with the confirmation of request's, maybe there will be even better stuff to find in them.
 
"Woot! I found some loot!"

"Idol" is the term used by Japan to refer to pop stars. So like, Brittany Spears (circa 1999-2000) would be considered an Idol.  Usually they're singers, but they often end up acting and do voice work. 99.9% of things put out by idols is complete crap.

And they initially get media attention because they're acting or singing.

Thank god.  There's absolutely nothing "more realistic" about watching your entire party make stupid decisions, like "knocking down" an enemy with single targeting skills instead of ma-whatever skills, etc. and thus wasting all their MP.  
 
Oh my other favorite is when they would "wait" instead of doing something obscure but probably helpful.... etc.  Or Mind Charge and then use like... Marin Karin... etc. (Mitsuru I am looking at you).
 
This game looks like it might actually be enjoyable to play the /whole/ way through.  I hope they adjust the idea of the social links so that mastering them all isn't the objective, because that was also a really stupid idea.  How is it realistic or enjoyable at all to have the pressure to master all social links to master the game.  I mean, generally in real life, you don't hang out with the jocks, and the faggy exchange student, and the neurotic art/science prodigy and get along with all of them.  If the mute main character is emblematic of me, then I would probably hate the effeminate Frenchie, be best friends with the unfortunate neurotic culture club kid, prove Akihiko is a fag, and make Mitsuru my hag.  That's how I'd master the Empress arcana--will and grace style--not by giving her "googly eyed idols" on Saturdays (to hell with that shit).

Is it true that the kids in this game wear glasses to summon Persona??? lmao

Yeah, I agree... the fake suicide was kind of ridiculous.  I did like the noise of glass breaking though every time the persona was summoned.  Honestly, I preferred when there was no "gimmick" and it was just an ability that some people had and others didn't.

Yeah, the suicide thing was, pardon my coarse language, retarded.  
The idiot masses: "oooh, look how deep/symbolic/edgy it is!"  
Me: "no actually it's just really stupid"  
The idiot masses: "no really it is deeply symbolic because something about killing off the ego so the id can take over blah blah blah *continues to try and justify the stupidity*"
Me: "no sweetie, when you shoot yourself in the head, you tend to end up either brain-dead or dead period. There is no secondary personality showing up to take over."
The idiot masses: "no it is SYMBOLIC."
Me: "Symbolism and imagery are not the same thing"
 
Quote:

 
That was nice, wasn't it? Back when everyone could go to the Velvet Room, everyone could swap Personas, and everyone could be controlled in combat.

He's a dog he can't hold a gun silly!
 
(That's an actual response someone gave me)

The main problem I have with the pseudo-suicide is that they force you to watch it every time, since you cannot turn off battle animations unlike the previous games in the series.

Does anyone have a translation of these screen shots?  If not, could someone translate it, even roughly?  There also looks to be some "social link" /action/ in these pictures.
 
Thanks for the update!

Haha, thanks for the translation help.  Honestly, I was hoping they'd say something more insightful, but I guess that's asking for too much.  Pointing out the obvious is cool too; haha, Elizabeth and Margaret look similar--no really?

Fusion Forecast:  
The example given is that if you fuse Titania and Makami on that date, it'll have the spell Bufula and increased parameters.

Yes, this may turn out at least more important than all these moon phases which had no real impact on anything (and i wondered why the developers placed them in majority of megaten games). Persona 2EP had no moon phases, and i haven`t heard anyone complaining about it )))

Quote from Sir_Asura on 06/15/08 at 13:35:43:

 
Well, there were at least two moves that caused more damage on certain moon phases, but yeah, other than that, I don't think the Personae were really affected by it.